Join Island County Beach Watchers as they explore and survey the rich intertidal zone.

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Monday, August 31, 2009

Utsalady Beach - August 18, 2009

Team searching

Locating reference pt for line

Limpets, mussels, & barnacles


What a contrast to our survey in 2008: bright sunshine, warm enough for shirts, and Mt. Baker visible in the distance with many boats anchored offshore! Thirteen Beach Watchers turned out at 8:00 AM to support our beach captain Pam C. lay out the line and 9 quadrats for our monitoring exercise. There was a -2.3 ft. tide expected at 9:41 AM. This year we found the beach in slightly better condition than before, although there are still very large pockets dug in the ground - clam digging - in the areas where we place our quadrat squares. Some of these are hidden by seaweed and become dangerous for walking.

Quadrat high on the Intertidal

Quadrat low on the Intertidal


Most notable this year were the large number of giant Idotea spp. (referred to as seaweed isopods) found in colonies, large numbers of mussels, Mytilus trossulus, and limpets, predominately Tectura persona, on the rocks and many egg masses on rocks between Balanus barnacles. Pete D. found a fish which he photographed for study. The team did not see many chitons or anemone and there were no seastars at all.

Huge Isopods

Details of 1 Isopod

Monitoring team 2009


After the monitors completed their tasks we were treated to brunch at the picnic area by Pam C. and Candy T. Thanks to all those who came to support this event, Pete D. s family for joining us and Pam C. for hosting. Pictures were provided by Pete D. and Judi McD.

Utsalady Beach - August 18, 2009

Team searching

Locating reference pt for line

Limpets, mussels, & barnacles


What a contrast to our survey in 2008: bright sunshine, warm enough for shirts, and Mt. Baker visible in the distance with many boats anchored offshore! Thirteen Beach Watchers turned out at 8:00 AM to support our beach captain Pam C. lay out the line and 9 quadrats for our monitoring exercise. There was a -2.3 ft. tide expected at 9:41 AM. This year we found the beach in slightly better condition than before, although there are still very large pockets dug in the ground รข€“ clam digging - in the areas where we place our quadrat squares. Some of these are hidden by seaweed and become dangerous for walking.

Quadrat high on the Intertidal

Quadrat low on the Intertidal


Most notable this year were the large number of giant Idotea spp. (referred to as seaweed isopods) found in colonies, large numbers of mussels, Mytilus trossulus, and limpets, predominately Tectura persona, on the rocks and many egg masses on rocks between Balanus barnacles. Pete D. found a fish which he photographed for study. The team did not see many chitons or anemone and there were no seastars at all.

Huge Isopods

Details of 1 Isopod

Monitoring team 2009


After the monitors completed their tasks we were treated to brunch at the picnic area by Pam C. and Candy T. Thanks to all those who came to support this event, Pete D. s family for joining us and Pam C. for hosting. Pictures were provided by Pete D. and Judi McD.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Cavalero Beach, June 23, 2009

Beth & Pete Investigating

Monitoring Team

All rocks are unique


Lowest pt of tide - clay

quadrats in seaweed

Using the Ez-Id Guide


An enthusiastic group of twelve Beach Watchers and guest volunteer, Bill Blandin, gathered at just before 10:00 am on the 23rd day of June at Cavalero Beach to perform Intertidal Monitoring. It was a pleasant dry day with temperatures in the mid to upper 50s. The group led by Cathy surveyed a single profile line with 24 segments out to -3.9 feet low tide level, and layed-out/evaluated nine quadrats.

The beach profile vertical height (VH) of 5.7 ft. was the lowest measured to date at this beach. The VH was measured as 7.1 ft. in 2008 and 7.8 ft. during 2007. These measurements seem reflective of a losing trend for substrate on this beach. Dissimilar to previous years about half the survey segments included clay/silt and about a quarter included ground shell materials. In previous years these substrate were mostly lacking on this beach. Marine organism variety and abundance was up from the 2007 levels and 2008 levels.

New information collected in the profile line in 2007 and this year for tracking of certain invertebrate allowed us to determine that the main species for barnacles was Balanus, for crabs was Hemigrapsus, and for snails was Littorina.

Invertebrates found included amphipods, anemones, arachnid, barnacles, crabs, fish, insects, isopods, jellies, limpets, mussels, polychaete, ribbon worms, snails, and bald eagles. Seaweed found included green, red and brown. One especially enjoyable find for monitors included the Haliplanella lineata, the lined anemone. This is a relatively uncommon anemone and its small size makes it hard to spot. When closed up, it is only about 1/4 inch in diameter. Haliplanella lineata is thought to have been introduced to the West Coast of North America about a hundred years ago when Pacific oysters were brought in.



We ended a successful monitoring event with a group photo and a picnic in the Park.
Written by Cathy M. with pictures provided by B. Blandin and J. McDougall.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Mabana Beach - August 20, 2009

Establishing monitoring line

Extremely gradual beach

Beach Watcher Team


Pete mired in sand

Boots sinking!

Pulling out of sand


Led by Barbara B. we had a team of 7 Beach Watchers and one friend, photographer Bill B., hike down to this sandy beach at 9:00 AM to work our way out to a low tide of -1.5 ft. at 11:20 AM. This beach is a very long, gradual beach that gets sandier as one goes to low tide, and is noted for capturing our shoes and boots as we plod out. This year was no exception! It is a true tide flat. Because of its long length, we did traverse the middle areas in larger line increments in order to get out to the low tide edge.

Lions mane jelly

What was found on this date were many areas of sand with many holes among it; however, only one ghost shrimp was found during numerous bivalve digs, although the group felt they might have been the makers of these holes. The small commensurate clam, Cryptomya californica, was plentiful in the bivalve digs. A beautiful jelly, a Lions mane (Cyanea capillata), was found just outside of our 20 ft. line width, and also dungeness crab, several of which were totally buried in the sand. Overall, fewer species were found than in former years. Notably reduced to just a few small ones were the sand dollars. It was speculated that fewer ghost shrimp might be attributed to warmer days and it is certain that less food available means fewer gray whales will be feeding at this beach in the spring.

Barbara collected our Beach Watcher back data in an effort to look at trends for this beach. As discussed by our group that day, probably the most notable thing was the absence of a larger number of species previously noted, and a seeming decrease in other species. While no conclusions were drawn, Barbara expressed that there is a need to standardize the taking of water temperature and salinity readings (reading done an exact distance from start point) to see if there is any correlation between these and species depletion.
Thanks to Barbara for hosting the final gathering afterwards and Bill B. for his much appreciated photography. Co-written by Barbara B. and Judi McD.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Sunny Shores - August 19, 2009

Searching in sand

Sheila digging down deep

Team searching for critters


We met at 8:30 am by Sally Goodson's garage to do our annual intertidal monitoring of Sunny Shores, this date August 19, 2009. Present were Pete D., Lynn R., Judi McD., Carol G., Sheila M., and Bill B. to support this event. We were led by beach captain Skip I. We located our starting point and sighted the landmark dock at Kayak Point on the opposite shore. Following are the critters list found and the general conditions of this year.

Erosion of the beach which is the fore foot of the bluff is negligible to unnoticeable from previous years. Within the first 60 feet, which is a mix of sand, gravel, and cobble we found amphipods, anemone, barnacles, clams, crabs (Hemigrapsus), limpets, isopods, mussels, and segmented worms (Polychaetes). Sea weeds were mostly of the green varieties with some brown in limited evidence.

Eagle watching us

Very small shrimp found


The next 300 feet, out to as far as one could go, to the edge of the receding tide, is all sand with some silt mixed in. This area is pocketed with clam and ghost shrimp holes; digging produced some samples of these two. The day was sunny and warm, and there were eagles, crows, and gulls present. We completed our line with the low tide of -2.0 at 10:23 am. Folks gathered afterwards for refreshments after returning up the bank.

One interesting sight was noted by all. On the next beach to the South of Sunny Shores we saw an interesting structure in the very low tide area. Pete walked over to investigate and reported that some large diameter plastic pipe inserted into the bottom was supporting the mesh bags that are used to raise shellfish. He said he could see oysters in the bags. This looked like a creative solution to avoid having the bags covered with silt at various stages of the tides. Skip promised to find out which neighbor has this installation and find out how successful it has been. This new beach activity emphasizes the importance of monitoring on a regular basis.

Thanks to Skip I. for this report and Bill B. and Judi McD. for the photos.

Old Clinton Beach-August 19, 2009

Team works profile line

I found a nudibranch!

Old Clinton Beach team photo 2009




August 19th brought a bright sunny day with temperatures well into the 70’s and a -2.3 foot tide. Team captain Evelyn Blair provided leadership as six Beach Watcher women took on Old Clinton Beach, the final Whidbey Island beach to be monitored for the 2009 season. This group had a great time searching through the eelgrass beds for the small organisms that make this habitat their home. The ladies were delighted to find a dozen or more opalescent nudibranchs (Hermissenda crassicornis) and one lion nudibranch (Melibe leonina). They also saw moonglow and white plumed anemones and the very wiggly inch and a half long polychaete Ophiodromus pugettensis. Evelyn noted that one surprise this year was that no moon snails or moon snail egg collars were found. As the team collected data, a great blue heron winged its way by and greeted them with its distinctive raucous call. It was a great way to wrap up the season!
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